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How I Spend My Friday Nights

Okay, so let me preface this by saying that 9/24/10 was actually the 17th anniversary of my first date with my wife. We’ve been married now for over 10 years and I’ve now been with her for half of my wife.

Now that being said, she spent our anniversary asleep early, trying to beat the cold her students give her at the beginning of every school year - and I spent it in front of the television for the only two shows that I watch on the CW - Smallville & Supernatural.

I’ve talked many times about these two shows, and finally for the first time as a view of both shows I was able to watch them back-to-back as the perfect fit that they are. When Smallville moved to Friday nights last season, I thought it only made sense to bring it’s Thursday night partner along with it. Now, with what might be the final season for both shows (definitely Smallville) I can enjoy two hours of two of my favorite shows without the cheating aid of a DVR.

SMALLVILLE

First, I’d like to talk about Smallville. I’ve heard the final season referred to as “the kitchen sink” season (I feel like I’ve written that before) and I agree with it because I strongly feel (hope) that the execs overseeing the show will give the fans every single thing they’ve been hoping for over the past 9 years.

Hey, we did get to see a bunch of Lex Luthors last night! That was very cool, but none of it will amount to much to me if they do not get Michael Rosenbaum back to at least just come on screen for a couple minutes.

I loved seeing Papa Kent as…a ghost? vision? hallucination? Whatever he was, it was great to see him giving Clark advice again.

I love that Lois knows and they aren’t going to retract on that storyline (oh I bumped my head, nevermind I guess that wasn’t Clark that kissed me). It was great for her to see Clark heal/superspeed and I really liked how she allowed Clark to speed over to the files he was after by claiming to be looking for her pen.

I also loved Clark’s save of her at the end. It was great to see the scarecrow stand too. And, I believe we may have seen Clark fly a little - at least he thought so. Plus, how great was that visual of him standing on the Daily Planet building holding the globe over his head.

Also enjoyed the entire Tess side storyline with the discovery of the lab, the clones, and the cute/creepy Alexander. But who brought her there and healed her? And why? These are things we’ll learn along the way I am sure.

Now a couple things that had me scratching my head. Lois left for the desert, but I don’t remember her deciding to do it. We left her in the field, and boom - desert. But, I assume that she is leaving Clark not only to better her career, but to also give him the freedom to become the hero he needs to be.

Another thing that confused me was the Chloe storyline. Once again, Chloe does something rash behind Clark’s back…”I’m sorry Clark”…How many times have we heard that? I’m assuming that she figured out where Oliver was because she put on Dr. Fate’s helmet, but how did she work out some deal to be swapped for him? Why would the people who have Oliver swap for her (unless they know she’s Watchtower)? And who the hell were the “good guys” doing the swapping?

I hope these are things we are going to find out - I swear, I didn’t fall asleep for a moment and miss something did I?

I just heard that Allison Mack (Chloe) is only going to be in four more episodes this season, and since she’s been there since day one, I hope that she will be there for the final episode, unless of course something big happens to her character before then…..

But she did have my favorite moment of the episode when she told Clark that she saw his future, and the hero he becomes - but he was not dressed in black….

When Clark went to look at the suit (the suit!!!!!!!) I literally said “Oh My God” out loud because part of me thought he was going to put that sucker on - oh Smallville how you tease us.

So towards the end, we get our first glimpse at Darkseid. Okay, the CG effects weren’t all that great - but I was psyched that the character looked like the actual Darkseid and not some dude just telling us that he is Darkseid.

And at the end, with great music playing, we see the suit - in the Fortress - one last time. The only thing this episode did was get my psyched for this entire season and assure me that we not only will see flights.

But we’re going to see those damn tights too.

SUPERNATURAL

And without so much as a minute to come down off of my Smallville high - I’m jumping into Season 6 - perhaps the season that was never meant to be? - of Supernatural.

Eric Kripke’s story for this show, as it’s creator, was 5 seasons. He’s now mostly done with the show, but the CW was not and wanted it back for seasons 6.

Thank you CW.

I get excited for every season premiere (since season 2) of this show because it opens with a montage called “The Road So Far” accompanied by “Carry on my Wayward Son” by Kansas. So I was excited and read to go and….

Nothing. No Kansas, no series-long recap. Just a “One Year Ago” recap of the previous season. And then it dawned on me.

This is a new beginning for the show. It made sense that they wouldn’t be looking back on everything before - just looking back at the last moments of the 5 year story - the “then” that brought us to “now.”

We know that Sam got out of hell from the end of last season, but it seemed as though there was something off about him. This season, we just find out that he is back - and hunting - and is normal Sammy again. That can’t be right. He doesn’t know why Hell spit him out, but for whatever reason it did, he’s taking his second (or is it like fourth) chance to go back to hunting.

In the meantime, he’s left Dean to just live the normal, boring life that he’s always wanted - with golf, drinking buddies, cookouts, and a 9-5 job. (Great montage of his life now in contrast to his life before).

That is until we found out that Djinn are killing people in Dean’s area and that he’s been poisoned by one of them (cool to see ol’ Yellow Eyes again).

So now Sammy returns, hugs and questions, and Dean insists on helping them with the Djinnns. Yes, them. It seems the Campbell family (Sam/Dean’s mom) connected with Sam and they’ve been hunting together for about a year. This includes gradpappy Mitch Pileggi, who is also back from the grave (perhaps the same reason that Sam is back) and Coren Nemec (who literally cannot lose).

So it’s business as usual as the Winchester and Campbells take on the Djinn. They kill one, but when the boys aren’t looking, the Campbells capture (and don’t kill) the other, so something is obviously up there.

Whatever the case is, the hunting family (who have been doing this since the days of the Mayflower, very cool to hear that) move on and Dean stays behind to live his “normal” life.

So it was cool to see Bobby, wish we saw Cass, great to see the boys together again - great humor with the golf clubs. All around, a solid Supernatural. Nothing that made me say “Oh My God” out loud, but still a fun, solid show that I love and I love that it’s paired up with my favorite show, Smallville.

Friday nights are cool for the geeks again!

How I Spend My Friday Nights
Reviewed by Fans Not Experts
on
September 25, 2010
Rating: 5